How ‘American’ is Budweiser?

Last week Budweiser beer announced it would be temporarily called and labelled ‘America’ for the upcoming US summer.

The temporary name change will see America appear on cans and bottles where the Budweiser name normally would. Labelling will also include phrases from the Pledge of Allegiance, lyrics from “The Star Spangled Banner” and images of the Statute of Liberty.

According to Budweiser, the brand decided to go nationalistic to remind Americans to “embrace the optimism upon which the country was first built.”

“We are embarking on what should be the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen, with Copa America Centenario being held on U.S. soil for the first time, Team USA competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Ricardo Marques, Vice President, Budweiser.

“Budweiser has always strived to embody America in a bottle, and we’re honored to salute this great nation where our beer has been passionately brewed for the past 140 years,” he said.

But just how American is Budweiser?

Although the beer originated in the US and is still brewed in 12 sites across America, Budweiser has actually not been solely American owned since 2008.

The beer is currently owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev(AB InBev) which is the world’s biggest brewer and is based in Belgium. AB InBev was formed from the merging of three companies, Interbrew from Belgium, AmBev from Brazil and Anheuser-Busch from the US (the owner of Budweiserprior to the merger).

Some of AB InBev’s biggest shareholders are not American either. Marcel Hermann Telles, for example, is a Brazilian man who owns just under a five per cent stake in the company.

Swiss-Brazilian, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, also owns approximately 3 per cent of AB InBev.